ロウェナの学習ログ・（Rowena's Study Log）

[Rowena]

注意(CAUTION): Awkward Back-flip Ahead

So, it turns out that, after putting in an 8 hour day in the garden yesterday with the chainsaw and line trimmer/strimmer/weed-whacker as well as much lifting, bending, hauling, pulling, and kneeling, my body ain’t used to that much gardening! I am absolutely knackered, but did get the yard sufficiently prepped for this morning’s temp-fencing delivery and installation.

All this to say that, since I’ll be reducing my gardening to 4-5 hours (at least until my body becomes accustomed to it), I will be able to fit that between my late morning and evening study sessions, so studies are to resume as planned. Here’s the schedule I made earlier:

[aral143]

SOS! I ordered the second volume a second time, and it STILL came without an answer key! All searching on the internet has led to naught, and also a bogus website that led to me getting a new debit card in the mail facepalm I don’t know if you’d feel comfortable scanning the answer book and sending to me, but that’s the only way I can think of getting it without having to buy ANOTHER copy. If you have other ideas, please let me know! I’m on the last lesson of the first book and I don’t want to have to halt study plans.

[Radish8]

@Rowena

my body ain’t used to that much gardening!

don’t I know the pain of that discovery

[Rowena]

It turns out I was even more knackered than I though &/or I was fighting off a virus (not the news-making one), 'cause the first two days of last week were a write-off, as were most other early mornings, so I only got 1 lesson session in and I chose to drop the time-consuming kanji book in favour of more lessons in the kanji workbook.

As an amusing and nostalgic aside, this wee picture in the kanji workbook

left me with a strong urge to watch this video which brought much gladness to my heart.

Sesame Street: Ernie and his Rubber Duckie

It’s been bothering my hyperorganised mind for a while that I’m not on the same lesson number in my kanji and grammar books, so I will continue this week as well doing kanji workbook only.

I have added BishBashBosh as a leech-training alternative to my late-morning studies - thanks very much to Radish8 for introducing us to it .

Here’s next week’s study plan:

[anon26278845]

For me I am reading Yotsuba JUST to practice my japanese reading
Whatever random words i catch that are familiar to me (like tsugei, some random japanese numbers days and months, seasons, colours etc) are a bonus.

Its just that i wanted to increase my fluency in reading japanese, and i keep an english translation of yotsuba near me just to compare my understanding (very general understanding) of the text to its real translation

Yotsuba is rlly cute tho hehe

[_Marcus]

@anon26278845

For me I am reading Yotsuba JUST to practice my japanese reading

Good choice! And don’t forget we have a Yotsuba reading club! Currently reading volume 13!

[anon26278845]

Cooool!!!
Thnx for letting me know

[Rowena]

@aral143

I got the Basic Kanji Workbook and have been truly enjoying it thanks to your recommendation!

There’s the source of the confusion (that and me not looking at your photo properly) - sorry that the confusion led you to buy a second copy of the book when you didn’t need to.

Here’s the Kanji section of the Japanese Language category if you need help at any point.
https://community.wanikani.com/c/japanese-language/kanji/19

[Rowena]

I’ve just levelled up to 23 after my late-morning review session (which is testimony to my more-haphazard studies of late; I usually level up after the evening session).

It took decidedly longer than I would like, but less than half the time of the level before, so I’ll take it as an improvement.

[Rowena]

I’m once again having trouble sleeping and so am missing my morning study session which means I only did lessons twice last week, as well as missing the first session of this new week - this has to change!

I had intended to go back and essentially re-do the first case in にゃんにゃん探偵団2 during this week’s break from reading わんわん探偵団, but will allow myself to take it as an actual break; if I find I’m doing better, I will simply reread the case we just finished.

This week will see me finally finish the first Basic Kanji book (which I first started in about 1999). Woohoo!

This week’s study plan:

[Rowena]

I just finished the last unit of my Basic Kanji Book Vol 1. I’ll be starting the bright, shiny, new(ish) Vol 2. from Monday.

[Rowena]

This last week was another unsuccessful one as far as lessons go - only two sessions, but that includes this morning so I hope I’m on an upward trend.

I’m looking forward to reading the beginning of the second わんわん探偵団 case tonight.

Next week’s plan:

[Rowena]

The past week has seen an improvement in my being in a decent state to do lessons, only missing one session on Thursday morning, so I should be finishing all the kanji for level 23 this week and should level up early next week.

The first few pages of the second case in わんわん探偵団 seemed rather more difficult than what had preceded it, but I also got to see several newish vocab items learned in WK, and I always love when that reinforcement happens

The audio for my Shin Nihongo no Kiso textbook has noticeably sped up in the last few lessons - it’s getting tricky to get my mouth around it all, but I can usually still understand it.

Next week’s plan:

[Rowena]

Another week of bad sleep hygiene saw me only do 3 batches of lessons, but I should be levelling up today.

I’ve added typing practice to my schedule - QWERTY for now, but I have a Dvorak keyboard on order, so will be learning that over the next few months as well.

This week’s plan:

[Rowena]

Despite being made to refresh twice during a rather short review session, I didn’t get too flustered and managed to move up to level 24!

[Rowena]

I’m still being undisciplined about getting to bed anywhere near early enough to be up, alert, and in front of my computer before 10am, so lessons only happened 3 times last week (I did, however, discover at 1am this morning that there is such a thing as a home mochi-making machine, because of course there is!).

Today is the last day I will be using the Shin Nihongo no Kiso I, so there is a new colour-code in the plan for the pretty-in-pink second volume.

Next week’s plan:

[Rowena]

I just finished 98 reviews in a sitting (unusual for me) after I was already supposed to be in bed, so this made it feel that much more worth while - I’m almost a quarter finished!

I took a screenshot of the notification as well, just for posterity - how lovely that the team will confess to forgetting to do some scheduled maintenance!

[Coddiwomple]

@Rowena

I’ve added typing practice to my schedule - QWERTY for now, but I have a Dvorak keyboard on order, so will be learning that over the next few months as well.

May I ask, what are you doing to practice your typing? What are your goals? How is it going?
Also, your lovely screenshots have sold me on getting a milestone celebration script

[Rowena]

Hi Coddiwomple (love the name!);

I’m using Typing Club, which seems from the occasional short animated videos to be aimed at kids in the USA, but it is working very well for me so far. Most of the content is free, but I have elected to subscribe to maximise the practice I can get from it. It has good feedback on speed and accuracy after every lesson/practice session and has a phenomenal stats page:

Screen shots of the very long stats page

Except for here on the forums and a few short emails, most of my typing is on WK, all of which is fairly brief and much of which is with constant switches between languages; I’m going to be applying for a Master’s of Information Management (a.k.a. librarianship/archiving/records management ), and as you may guess, there is an expectation of decent speed & accuracy in keyboarding (though they have not been as kind as to stipulate what they consider decent ).

I fortunately had the presence of mind in Year 9 to sign up for typing class as a year-long elective class, so I can do 10 finger touch-typing on the letters and some punctuation, but seriously need to brush up on numbers and characters as well as needing to increase speed and accuracy. I also learned on an actual mechanical typewriter - the type where, when you pressed down on the shift key with your wee little pinky finger, you were actually lifting the entire heavy, metal-keys-mechanism - so modern keyboards do have components to their layout that I’ve never learned to use by touch.

@Coddiwomple

Also, your lovely screenshots have sold me on getting a milestone celebration script

Since so many of us here are self-learners, I think we deserve to have cheering squads wherever we can find them, and I have really enjoyed having this extra morale boost when it pops up - I really hope you do too!

[Coddiwomple]

This is a fantastic resource, thank you for sharing! Numbers and characters get me too, when I was learning I thought ‘surely the letters are enough’, and yet, it would be nice just to know allllll of the keys. (Half my typing time is spent fixing typo’s and spelling errors anyway but shhhhh)

@Rowena

I also learned on an actual mechanical typewriter

So cool! I never realised that some keys would be so much heavier than others! But your poor pinkie finger

Best wishes for your degree application, I am sure that you will swiftly surpass decent typing skills and reach excellence